Art of felting hat-bodies



llNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN T. VVARING, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ART OF FELTING HAT-BODIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 248,536, dated October 18, 1881.

Application filed September 16, 1880.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, JOHN T. WARING, of the city of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Felting Hat-Bodies, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the preparation of hat-bodies for the first stage of the felting process, known as hardening. This stage of the felting process in the manufacture of fur hat-bodies is usually performed as follows: The cone, with the hat-body formed upon it, is dipped in Water. The body is then taken from the cone, and, after wringing or squeezing out from it a portion of the water, it is rolled up, either alone or with others,in a cloth,and then submitted to a rolling process, which causes the fibers to knit or felt together. This rolling is continued until a sufficient degree of strength and smoothness is attained to admit of its being handled. The body is then taken to the kettle or to some machine to begin that stage of the manufacture known as sizing.

in order to perform the above'described hardening process successfully, the felting material must possess good felting properties, to prevent the delicate fabric from going to pieces, or, to use the hatters term, becoming breaky and uneven.

The object of this invention is to give the body greater strength in the hardening stage of the felting process; and to this end the improvement consists in submitting the body to the action of an acid solution after it has been formed and before it is hardened. The said solution may be used in place of the water in which the body on the cone is usually dipped, or the body may be clipped in it after it has been removed from the cone and before subjecting it to the rolling process by which the hardening is effected.

(No Specimens.)

The acid solution which I propose generally to employ, and have employed successfully,is a solution composed of sulphuric acid and water in the proportion of from one pint to one quart of ordinary commercial sulphuric acid to one hundred and fifty gallons of water, or of a strength of from 1 to 2 Baums hydrometer; but the strength may be varied beyond these limits in either direction without essentially changing this result or departing from my invention. Other acids, as muriatic, nitric, or acetic, might be substituted for sulphuric acid.

By this use of an acid solution the felting properties of the fiber are stimulated and the hardening process is accomplished more rapidly and the body is rendered much firmer, smoother, and stronger when hardened, and the body when finished makes a more even and better hat.

Another advantageobtai-ned by thisimprovement is that an inferior stock may be used without the body breaking during the hardening or other stage of the felting process.

I do not claim, broadly, the use of acid solution in the process of felting hat-bodies, as I am aware that such solutions have been used in certain stages of theprocess after the stage known in the trade as hardening, but

What I claim as my invention,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

As an improvement in the art of felting hatbodies, the treatment of the bodies with an acid solution after the body has been formed and before it is hardened, substantially as herein described.

JOHN T. WARING.

Witnesses:

HENRY T. BROWN, FREDK. HAYNEs. 

